


Memories

by Kelticmoon



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, M/M, Multi, Paladin Bonding, Past Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 17:10:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20067586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kelticmoon/pseuds/Kelticmoon
Summary: A bonding exercise leads to the team learning something about Keith they wish they hadn't.





	Memories

**Author's Note:**

> This is kinda compliant with my fixit series but kinda not.

“You want us to do what now?” Pidge asks with a raised eyebrow after Allura approached the five of them as they were relaxing in the Castle of Lions.

“I would like you to re-attempt the mind-meld exercise,” Allura explains. “I’ve reprogrammed the mind-melding devices recently with an added feature to bring forth the memories of the last time you saw your families.”

“I don’t know about this…” Pidge says.

“I know this will not be easy for you all but that’s what makes it so effective,” Coran tells them. “As Paladins, you need to be able to trust each other.”

“I’m in,” everyone but Keith says.

Lance sees Shiro give Keith a worried look as they all take a spot on the floor. Keith hasn’t said a word but he refuses to look at anyone as he fidgets with his arms crossed. Keith’s hands tremble as he picks up the device and for a second, Lance swears Shiro is considering calling the whole thing off.

What the heck does Keith have to be so damned afraid of?

Lance shakes his head softly and focuses.

“Alright Paladins, let’s do this,” Shiro tells them.

Lance slips his mind-meld device on and clears his mind. It slowly fills with clear visions of the other’s memories.

He sees his own memories. He's sees himself with his parents as he hugs them, his older siblings, niece and nephew good-bye before boarding a plain to the Garrison with his older sister, Veronica; then an officer. He feels a wave of homesickness hit him before it moves to someone else.

Next came Hunk, hugging a curvy lady with curly brown hair she wears with a headband similarly to Hunk’s. Like Lance, he has a big family. Unlike Lance, he boards the plane alone after waving good-bye to his family.

It shifts to Shiro's next. He sees Shiro at 13 year old standing with his grandmother and a younger boy (his brother maybe?) as his parents were lowered into the ground. That grandmother takes both him and the younger boy in (definitely brother). It then shifts to a year or two later when he's been accepted into the Garrison academy as a cadet. He kisses her and his brother good-bye as he boards a plane. It shifts again to him receiving a letter from a neighbor telling him his grandmother passed away in her sleep and his brother has been placed in foster care since Shiro is still a cadet and a minor at the time.

The scene shifts and Lance can tell its Pidge’s memories immediately. He sees her with long hair and a dress hugging her father good-bye and punching her brother in the shoulder the day they all left on the Kerberos mission, vowing that if they don’t come back that she’ll come find them. Then it shifts to Pidge with a bag over her shoulder, hair cut short as she stands in the doorway of her mom’s room while she sleeps the night Pidge ran away from home to join the Garrison. Tears drip down her face as she leaves. He can feel her regret, but also her determination to find her father and brother and bring them back to her mother.

He can feel Keith’s trepidation even before anything is shown.

Slowly, an image appears.

Unlike Lance’s and everyone else’s, it’s faded and blurry around the edges with age. Lance sees an older man who looks a lot like Keith with a first aid kit applying a bandage to Keith’s hand. Keith has a black eye and can’t have been older than 7. At their side wagging her tail with her head resting on Keith's thigh is a mixed breed dog of some kind.

“Keith, you know fighting isn’t allowed in school,” Keith’s dad tells him calmly.

“Jason started it!” Keith says. “He laughed at me for making you a Mother’s Day card!”

Keith’s dad sighs and doesn’t say anything.

“Dad?” Keith begins after a while. “Why don’t I have a mom?”

“Your mother left when you were just a baby,” Keith’s Dad explains gently.

“Why? Did I do something wrong?” Keith asks innocently.

His dad immediately pulls the seven year old into his arms and hugs him.

“No! Of course not!” he soothes him. “Your mother loved you very much.”

“Then why did she leave me?”

Lance watches Keith’s dad think for a moment before answering.

“Sometimes… even though you want to stay with the people you love… life and duty have other ideas.”

“I don’t understand…” Keith says back.

His dad smiles down at him.

“I know you don’t understand it now, but one day you will,” he assures Keith.

“But we’ll always be together, right Dad?”

“Oh you bet, Buddy!” Keith’s dad says before picking Keith up and pretending he’s an airplane. Lance bites back a laugh as he watches Keith squeal and giggle as he plays with his dad. The memory feels bittersweet to Keith and Lance can’t help but dread what they’re about to see.

The memory shifts like the others did, except now Keith is probably a year or two older. Like before, this is blurry with age and the faces are faded. Keith’s riding in what looks like a funeral procession for a firefighter. Later they watch as a casket is lowered into the ground.

After the funeral, a lady in a suit approaches Keith as he stands crying in front of the freshly covered grave.

“Come along now,” she says grabbing Keith by the wrist. "We still need to get your things."

“I’m not ready to go yet!” Keith exclaims with tears rolling down his cheeks. “Just a few more minutes, please!”

The lady scoffs and Lance immediately hates her.

“He’s not getting any deader and we have a tight schedule to keep!” she tells him with the sensitivity of a chainsaw.

She starts to drag him off and Keith yanks his wrist out of her grip.

“He promised me! He said he’d always be there for me!” Keith cries. “He promised!”

The lady then backhands Keith so hard he takes a few steps backward and Lance has to remind himself it’s a memory. As it is, he can feel the outrage from the other three Paladins seeing this.

“Welcome to the real world kid!” the lady barks at him. “The only person you can ever truly count on in this life is yourself. Sooner or later, everyone either leaves or dies, so get used to it! Now quit your blubbering! That’s life, and life is hard. So unless you’re planning to join him, you’d best come with me!”

Lance can feel the pure hatred from Keith at the memory and he can’t take anymore.

A loud clang echoes the room, jolting everyone back to present as Lance rips off his mind device. He throws it aside before reaching across the circle to grab the shoulder of Keith’s jacket and pull him into a fierce hug.

Suddenly, Lance regrets every single jab he ever made about Keith not having parents. If that horrid woman was any indication of how Keith was treated after his father died, it’s no wonder he acts the way he does. Lance does the math real quick and realizes Keith’s dad died around the same time as Shiro’s parents. Unlike Shiro who had a grandmother to take him in, Keith had no one.

Shiro is the first to join him in hugging Keith, followed by Hunk and Pidge and then Allura, and Coran. Keith breathing becomes erratic as Lance removes the mind device from Keith’s head with one hand before petting Keith’s hair softly. Lance can feel Keith trembling in their embrace before his grip tightens on Lance’s hoodie.

Lance hears Keith mumble something vaguely sounding like an apology and Lance won’t have it.

He shushes Keith softly.

“You have absolutely nothing to apologize for.”

“We’re sorry you had to go through all that, Keith,” Hunk tells him earnestly.

“You’ve got us now,” Shiro promises.

“And we’re not going anywhere,” Pidge finishes.

Keith sniffles and buries his face into Lance’s shoulder as he clings to him like a lifeline.

“Also, I’m just going to say what everyone’s thinking,” Pidge adds. “But that lady was full of shit!”

Shiro, Hunk, and Lance quickly voice their agreement with her.

“Oh yeah!”

“Definitely!”

“So much fuck her!”


End file.
